Mentally ill youth reunited with family

A mentally ill youth from Jharkhand found wandering in Lalgudi a few days ago was reunited with his parents on Friday by Collector Jayashree Muralidharan.

Finding something amiss with the youth in his twenties who was treated with indifference by the locals, Lalgudi police put him under the care of District Disabled Rehabilitation Officer R.Shyamala, who, in turn, took the support of Anbalayam, a rehabilitation home for the mentally ill.

A volunteer of Anbalayan, Thiagarajan, an employee of Ordnance Factory, Tiruchi, conversed with the youth in Hindi and traced his roots to Ranchi in Jharkhand.

A B.Com drop-out, Suraj was found to be in need of psychiatric treatment. Contact with his family was immediately established, Anbalayam founder T.K.S.Senthil Kumar said.

The parents of Suraj, who had gone missing a fortnight ago, had been searching for him in Calcutta when they were informed of his safe custody at Anbalayam.

The youth’s father Vijayakumar and sister Sunitha travelled to Tiruchi to take Suraj home with an assurance to provide him psychiatric care.